Dangerous Secrets, Dangerous Crab Boats
by Color Guard Lady
Summary: A Michigan girl schemes her way onto a crab boat, the superstitious captain has no idea. Will the crew figure out what's up? Find out soon...
1. Chapter 1

Info:

Name: Jennie Rewalt

Age: 16

Looks: Dark blonde hair w/ red-ish highlights- shoulder-length, green eyes, 5'3",

average looking, doesn't usually wear make-up, only chapstick

Quick Background info: Father (alive), stepmother (alive), stepbrother (deceased) mother

(alive)

lived in Michigan her entire life with her mother, though she longed to live with

father, Roger Paul, stepmother, Sharon, and brother, Jason. Unable to deal with her stubborn mother for one more day, she decided to use the money she was saving to find some meaning to life. She quickly bought a ticket to Dutch Harbor, Alaska, and fled. It was the farthest place she could go without a passport and she knew she wouldn't be found.


	2. Chapter 2

I ONLY OWN JENNIE & HER FAMILY- THAT'S ALL

BEGIN-

As Jennie stepped off the plane, she drew her winter coat tighter. Being from Michigan, she could deal with cold, she just wasn't used to snow in August yet. She headed to a pay- phone and quickly put in the change. She dialed the phone number of the police station by her house. She left an anonymous message stating that she had seen a teenage girl who claimed to be hitch-hiking to Mexico. She hung up the phone shortly after. It was the best story she could come up with to throw them off. She thought about calling her dad, but quickly dismissed that thought from her head. She ran into the nearest building, which she saw was called the "Elbow Room". She walked nervously to the counter and sat down. She asked for a water, and began to think out her plan. Okay, she had made it to Dutch, she reasoned. Now _all _she had to do was find a job. She overheard some men talking at a nearby table. They were talking about crab fishing. Well that sounds interesting, she thought as she headed out of the Elbow Room. She decided to head for the docks to see if she could get a job on a ship. How hard could it be? She failed to realize that crab-fisherman were extremely superstitious. They wouldn't be too keen to let a woman on board. Innocently determined, she scoured the dock for captains. After being turned down by several captains, and avoided by many deckhands, she came across two captains that seemed nice enough. She asked them where she could find _the Rollo_. That boat had been recommended by the last deckhand she spoke to. Unfortunately, the nice captains informed her that _the Rollo_ would be counting crab this year, they weren't going out. The first hope of a job in hours had been dashed. Dejected, she introduced herself to the two captains- "Sorry I didn't introduce myself, I'm Jennie Rewalt, I don't mean to seem like a wreck, usually I have it together, but I really need a job, so could either of you find it in your heart to give me a job, I've been looking for hours but all of the captains rejected me and the deckhands-"Whoa, there" the dark-haired man said. "I'm Capt. Jonathan Hilstrand and this here is my buddy Capt. Keith Colburn now calm down, Ms. Jennie was it?" "You see, it's not that we don't think that you wouldn't be a hard worker, but you see you're a- "Hold on Keith, I don't think she knows. Now Jennie, look, we would give you a job, but there's the superstition we have to deal with. Women are just plain bad luck on boats" Jennie looked down at her feet; she finally realized why all of the captains had turned her away. She was a girl, and girls were bad luck on a boat. She thanked the captains for clueing her in, and wished them luck on their crab fishing season.

As she walked down the dock towards the Elbow Room, an idea struck her. Sure, the captains wouldn't let a girl on the boat, but what if they didn't know. Her voice wasn't as high as most girls, though she didn't sound like a man either. She came to a rapid conclusion. She would say that she was her brother Jason. She hadn't talked to all of the captains in the fleet, and even if word spread, they would just think that the two came out there together. No one had to know. She knew she would be safe, no one here knew her brother, so no one knew what hr looked like, and no one knew he was dead for that matter either. She walked behind the Elbow Room and took a pair of scissors out of her bag. She always came prepared for anything of course. She cut about three inches off her hair, and put it into a ponytail at the nape of her neck. She donned a baseball cap to finish it off and practiced talking an octave lower. Piece of cake she concluded. She came out from behind the bar and walked back to the dock. This time, she would get a job, she just knew it. No one would find out, at least until they got to sea. By then she hoped she had proved her worth. She didn't, however, plan to be seen going behind the bar and coming back out. The onlooker just shook his head. "Damn she was determined, he thought to himself.


	3. Chapter 3

Early the next morning Jonathan awoke to the sound of the phone in his wheelhouse ringing. Reluctantly, he got up to answer. Seeing that it was his friend Capt. Phil Harris calling he decided to answer. "What's up, Phil?" Not one for pleasantries, Phil got to the point. "One of my deckhands quit on me. Have you met anyone I could hire?" Phil's boat, the _Cornelia Marie, _was tied up at the end of the dock. Most people looking for work just didn't venture that far. They usually gave up long before. "Sorry Phil, haven't met many, and those few were too overconfident." Phil reluctantly hung up the phone. As he walked out on deck, he saw heard someone calling up from the dock.

Jennie rose early that morning, determined to find a job. She walked to the dock and started asking a few boats down from where she had left off. Over a span of about two minutes, she was told about 30 times in many different ways that she wasn't needed. Finally, at the end of her rope- and the dock for that matter- she came upon a teal and yellow ship. She almost gave up, but she figured that she might as well try. She screamed up to the boat in the hope that someone would answer.

Capt. Phil looked out onto the dock. There stood a scrawny-looking boy who couldn't be more than 20. "What do you want, boy?" Phil called. "I need a job sir." Jennie countered. Phil jumped onto the dock and said, "What makes you think I'll give ya one?" "Nothing sir, I work hard and learn fast is all. My name's Jen-Jason Rewalt." Not one to ignore signs- he had just said he needed a deckhand- Phil agreed. A greenhorn was better than nothing after all. After Phil explained that he had the job, "Jason" went to retrieve his bags.

About an hour after he spoke with Phil, Jonathan got a funny feeling in the pit of his stomach. Something was wrong and he was going to find out just what. Jonathan decided to call Phil back. "Hey Jonathan, I found a deckhand- well greenhorn really, but he'll do." There was that funny feeling again. "What did he look like?" An odd question really, but he had a feeling he knew exactly who Phil had unknowingly hired. After hearing the description he knew he was correct. He thought about telling Phil but opted not to. The kid went through so much trouble to get a job, after all. *If he doesn't find out by the end of the season I'll tell him.* But Jonathan had a feeling that she couldn't hide it for long. However, before he hung up the phone, curiosity struck. "Hey Phil, what's his name?" "Jason Rewalt, why?" It was then that Jonathan remembered why her last name had sounded familiar. He used to have a deckhand by that name about 16 years previous. Then he went to Phil's boat, and then he left. Rewalt was a common name however. That was probably why Phil wrote it off. Jonathan then decided he would have to keep an eye on this girl.

That name would cause Jennie more trouble than she knew. For during his rebellious screw-up phase, her brother had worked on a crab boat. He had refrained from telling even his father that he had done it. The only thing that bid him leave Dutch Harbor was the divorce of his parents. He would be damned if he left his baby sister alone. So, unbeknownst to Jennie, she had found work on the boat her brother had toiled on for 5 years. And also unknown to her was the fact that some of those deckhands had worked with her brother. This would be an interesting trip indeed.


End file.
